Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Last week, Poppy had her much-anticipated sailing camp in Canada. It was just a day camp and Sam and I usually hung out at the beach while she was sailing away...

The first day, they began with learning about the different parts of a boat and how to set a boat up. Then they put 3 kids into a boat and the instructor brought each boat out to the shallow end, with the boat attached to a rope. She would then direct the kids how to steer and make figure 8's and other simple things. It was really cute to watch Poppy in the boat and she absolutely loved it. On the 2nd day, I was expecting a similar set-up, but instead I looked out and saw Poppy in her little boat (with 2 other classmates) sailing away into Lake Erie! I was a little nervous at first but then I saw the instructors in a little motor boat nearby and realized that they wouldn't really be going out too far. Poppy LOVED it!

{Poppy is on the little boat with the green stripe and those are her instructors in the little motor boat to the left.}

{Once they teach the kids how to do each task, they really make the kids try to do everything on their own. It was pretty neat to see how independent the kids were.}

{On this particular day it was pretty chilly and Poppy didn't even hesitate to get into the water, which really surprised me!}

{Sam cannot wait until he turns 6 so that he can do sailing camp too!}

In addition to being out on the water, they also played a ton of games, sang songs, spent time goofing around on the playground and they even ended the week with a pizza party. Poppy really enjoyed every minute of camp. She made some adorable friends, loved her coaches and she can't wait to go back again next year.

{This was my view from the beach and I loved every second of it!}

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In other news, Poppy has been asking to have a lemonade stand for years and this past weekend we made that dream of hers a reality. Marc made this adorable lemonade stand and Poppy diligently worked on her money skills all week. Ty had just as much fun as Poppy did and Sam just couldn't get enough of pouring the lemonade into cups. The three amigos made quite a cute little team and even decided to donate a portion of their profits to the Buffalo Zoo. They also decided that there would be many more lemonade stand days in their future...

Saturday, July 27, 2013

3 years. 3 years have gone by in the blink of an eye. I know it's so cliche, but seriously. This little baby of mine is trying to be all grown up, but I won't let him. I want to keep him trapped in his little body with his chubby cheeks and legs, wild blonde hair and crooked smile. Even when he is being the stubborn little boy that he is, I just want him to stay like this forever.

When I was pregnant with Sam, as soon as I found out it was going to be a boy, all of my friends with boys told me how special my relationship with him would be. How snuggly and lovey he would always be with me. And I am so glad to say, it's completely true. He is all boy from the minute he wakes up- he wants trucks, dirt and trouble-making. But he always has time to drop his toys and mischief for hugs and kisses and "I love you all day mommy" and snuggles galore.

One of Sam's favorite foods to eat is Korean dumplings, homemade only. So the day of his birthday party, Poppy was happy to oblige and whipped out about a hundred dumplings for her brother and cousins to eat.

Back in the olden days, for Marc's 30th birthday, I came across a picture of this chocolate pyramid shaped cake filled with gold foil chocolate coins and treasure and knew I had to make it for him. Obviously those were the pre-children days when spending hours making a silly birthday cake were no big deal. Well fast forward almost 10 years and we were telling the kids about that magical cake and ever since then, Sam has been asking when he will get to have a chocolate cake that is filled with golden chocolate treasure. With a little added pressure from Marc, I finally succumbed and dug out the recipe for the chocolate pyramid cake. My mom, Poppy and I spent Sam's entire naptime creating this masterpiece and it lived up to every expectation in the eyes of Samuel Marrano.

In addition to stuffing ourselves with dumplings and chocolate cake, there was plenty of swimming to be done on Sam's birthday. This kid (and his sister) live to be in the water.

Earlier that day, at her swimming lesson, Poppy finally learned how to swim underwater. She is in heaven now that she can jump into the pool and not have to worry about getting water up her nose.

Having a bunch of cousins that love the water just as much make it even more fun. Having a goof-ball for a dad is the icing on the cake...

And then on Sam's actual birthday, of course we had to have an ice cream cake with more celebrating...

Words can't begin to describe the joy this little stinker brings to our family. Even though I hate the thought of how quickly time is going by and how fast he is growing up, I do love to see his mischievous little personality develop. He loves his sister. He loves to tease her and he loves to do sweet things to make her happy. He loves trains, construction vehicles and basically anything with a motor. He is curious about EVERYTHING. He loves books and learning new things. And I love everything about him. Happy 3rd birthday to my favorite little boy in the whole world.

Monday, May 13, 2013

Aaaaaah. That's my sigh of relief that our annual million-parties-in-one-week week is over! As much as I always look forward to this time of year, it's also just sooo chaotic that I can't help but be relived it is over.

We started the festivities off with a birthday party for Poppy and her cousins. Actually, I tried to cancel this one at the last minute because we were planning on having it in the middle of the work week, at our house and the thought of coming home from work, in between ballet and soccer practices, to host a bunch 2-10 year olds in our house was causing me to lose sleep. But I also happen to have the best sister-in-law in the world and she twisted my arm until I agreed to let her have the party at her house. My brother even agreed to heat up their pool so that everyone could go swimming - which never happens in May!!!

{Best cousins. Well actually, there is a debate over this because yesterday Sam declared that Amelia was his favorite cousin and well, Poppy wasn't too thrilled with that.}

{Speaking of Sam, this is his favorite swing in the world...}

{I love everything about this picture! Uma and Poppy made this awesome ice cream sandwich and candy layer cake. Needless to say, it was a big hit with everyone.}

{On Sunday we went to Shogun to squeeze in a little birthday celebration for me (which I gladly shared with Poppy.}

{Monday was back to celebrating Poppy's birthday with all of Marc's family. More ice cream cake!}

And then this past Saturday we had her big "friends" birthday party. I told her she could invite 5 friends from her classroom and then 5 more friends or cousins. What she didn't know was that Marc and I also invited Cinderella...

{to say that Poppy was surprised would be an understatement.}

Cinderella was so sweet and gentle and all of the girls (and Sammy) were beyond impressed by her. She started by having all the girls say a "princess pledge" where they promised to always listen to their parents and to share with their siblings and friends and to always be the best they can be. It was sooo sweet!

After a few princess dance lessons and reading them a few princess books, Cinderella even stayed to help sing Happy Birthday to Poppy.

And Sam couldn't resist snuggling up to Cinderella for a few pics. Ever since she visited, Sam just walks around the house saying "There was a princess at my house. A real princess! She was really here!"

After every single birthday party we've ever had for Poppy, as soon as the guests leave she always says, "That was the BEST birthday ever!!! Next year I want to have the same exact party!" Which is in my opinion, a pretty good sign that the birthday girl is happy!

The funniest part of all this birthday madness is that every year we say, we've got to scale it down next year - we don't need so many parties! And then the next year rolls around and before we know it, we've planned a million parties. But if you could see how much Poppy loves to spend time with her friends and family, you would realize how every minute of it is so worth it. I would give this girl all the stars in the sky if I could, I love her so.

Friday, April 12, 2013

I can hardly believe it's already been a week since we returned from another great vacation in Florida. Poppy and Sam were so excited leading up to this trip, they even made a countdown chain out of paper rings.

Sam was the most excited about the beach. For the week before we left, every time he woke up from a nap or in the morning, the first thing he asked was, "We go to the beach now?"

So even though it was pretty chilly on our first day there, Sammy still ventured out into the water and spent the day at the beach...

Just before we left I bought the Lifeproof case for my phone so that we could take underwater pictures. Poppy said her goal for the week was to learn how to swim with her face underwater and I promised her I would take her picture when she did. Unfortunately, she never got the courage to swim underwater and by the end of the week I lost one of the little plugs for the phone cover (which meant that it was no longer waterproof), but at least we were able to test it out first! Summer goal = more underwater swimming pics.

Sam was a ham the entire trip...

We spent lots of time digging in the sand...

And building sand castles...

We stayed with my parents, which is always fun. And we even dragged them to the Tampa Zoo...

Of course we stopped at the sprinklers to cool down on the way out of the zoo...

We found an Easter egg hunt in the neighborhood where we were staying...

The Easter bunny found out where we were staying and hid eggs and baskets all over our condo...

We had some photo ops with some really big fish...

We spent lots of time down at the waterfront...

Poppy is 5 going on 16...

We went on a sailboat trip to look for dolphins...

It was so cool being able to see them so close...

Marc and Sam down at the beach...

We flew kites...

And overall we had an amazing trip. The weather wasn't perfect but we didn't mind a bit. We just loved spending our time together, making lots of good memories...

Sunday, March 17, 2013

{Big sis teaching Sam all the tricks - how to play the piano, how to do his hair and how to bling it up with some jewelry!}

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And we are so excited that Poppy has graduated from Book 1 in Suzuki piano and was able to have her recital! She has been working on 18 songs for the past year and a half and her recital was an opportunity for her to play all of these songs for her friends and family. She has been anticipating this moment for the past few months...

She did absolutely amazing. We are sooooo proud of how hard she has worked every single day practicing these songs. It's unbelievable how much progress she has made since learning how to play Twinkle, twinkle last October. And now she is so excited to tackle the new songs in Book 2.

And then it was onto the small reception we had for her afterwards. It doesn't get much better then cupcakes with cousins and friends!